It’s been a busy couple of days on the railroad! Thursday, Kevin came over again and we got some benchwork in, and yesterday I went down and finished those projects up. There’s now continuous benchwork from Corinna all the way around to the upper yard throat at Searsport! Here’s a collection of pictures of the progress …

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Next order of business is to get some roadbed down on the new sections, and then some track! I’m down to my last few sections of roadbed, and my local hobby shop was just about out, too. I’ve ordered a couple of boxes. Hopefully, the mainline can be completed in the next week!

At some point soon, I’ll also need to tackle the modifications to Corinna which will make the yard function better as a terminus — the current arrangement only really works as a mid-line facility.

Kevin came by today to drop off a large lateral file cabinet and to play the part of Chewbacca to help get the end of the peninsula (which I dubbed the Millennium Falcon because of it shape) back up on legs after its mysterious crash landing a couple of weeks ago. We actually managed to get it back into exactly the same position it was in before the unexpected landing.

We used the same legs again, but this time, we were smart enough to use a piece of wood to tie the peninsula in temporarily so that it won’t fall again between now and when we get the benchwork filler in place.

Effective immediately, starter sets are shipping with the pre-made battery packs and simplified wiring components. And new components in the set require a new wiring diagram. It’s finally ready. The new scheme requires fewer connections, and is less complicated. This wiring diagram replaces the one in the Primer, and is part of the Dead Rail Primer download package in the shop.

Yesterday, at 2:45PM, WW&F #9 made her first moves under steam since June of 1933 at the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum in Alna, Maine. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there, but a couple of other fans were, and shared some video. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Thanks to YouTube user bunky41058 for those clips!

Eric Schade put together this nice video. It’s about 20 minutes long, and is a good look at yesterday’s festivities.

Eric posted the following on his YouTube page, along with the video:

She was built in 1891 by the Portland Company in Portland Maine. She served the Sandy River Railway as #5 then Sandy River and Rangely Lakes RR as #6 until 1924 when she was purchased by the Kennebec Central wearing the number 4. when that line closed in January 1933 she was purchased by the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington RR and served for a few months before that line closed in June. She was rescued from the cutting torch by Frank Ramsdell and William Monepenny and spent the next 60 some years in a shed on the Ramsdell farm in Connecticut before heading back to Maine and the WW&F Railway Museum. Restoration work started in 2006 and is largely the result of volunteer labor.

This is very exciting, and Donna and I are thrilled to have been able to participate in the project to, as donors whenever possible. If you’re at all interested in the Maine 2-Footers, we encourage you to join the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum.

My, but it’s been quiet around here, especially where the layout is concerned. There’re a few reasons, but the most important is that I’ve found that I am just really unhappy with a very large portion of the layout — the peninsula that encompasses Plymouth, Mount Harris/Common Hill, and Brooks. The shape of the peninsula forced awkward track arrangements and its position in the room won’t make the visual impression I’m after.

So, very soon, I’ll be removing the peninsula. Corinna Mill we remain where it is, and Corinna itself will also remain largely unchanged. Also, all of the new benchwork constructed for what are now Swanville and Waldo will remain. A new section of benchwork will be built to bridge the gap between the remaining benchwork. I’ll try to re-orient the peninsula so that it faces the other way, but I’m probably going to have to build a new peninsula to replace it.

The On30Guy Dead Rail Primer is now available free of charge as a PDF download from the Shop! Based on the on-line version, it covers the basics of Dead Rail in general, and DelTang in particular — complete with suggested wiring diagrams. You can find it in any of the Dead Rail shop categories.

I arrived back from the Mid-West Narrow Gauge Show late last night (or was it early this morning?). Despite a few snafus, I had a great time catching up with old friends, and making new ones. I’m already looking forward to the next time I can attend this show — hopefully next year.

One new friend is On30 Guy customer Robert South. Robert had recently opened Rerailer Hobbies, and one of the services he provides is installation of DelTang receivers. If you’re looking for installation help, he’s your man. Here’s how to get in touch with him:

Another new friend is David Thompson, owner of Harber Belt Lines. David’s got a great line of products for detailing your railroad, among other things. Be sure to check out his web site, and visit him at shows — and buy some stuff!

Several of us took the opportunity to visit the Youngstown Model Railroad Club on Friday night after dinner. The club has a very active membership and two very large, very nice layouts in HO and O scale. If you’re ever in the area, be sure to make arrangements to stop by and see them. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera along with me, so I don’t have any pictures.

A few years ago, I wrote about a scenery product called True Scene. To re-cap, it’s a fibrous material that you mix with water and slather on your layout to give some scenic form and as a base coat for your scenery. This past weekend, I decided to give it a try, as I have a module that needed to be sceniced quickly, for a train show this coming weekend.

After mixing and coloring the True Scene material per the instructions, I applied the material to the module, and followed it up with my base coat of scenic materials. In the photo above, it’s the right-most section — where the track isn’t ballasted, and all along the back edge.

The True Scene folks say that it takes 24 hours for the material to dry. I finished up on scenery yesterday about 3PM, and so I would expect that by 6:30 this morning, there should be some change in the consistency of the “batter.” However, that is not the case. It still feels just as gooey as it did when I spread it out yesterday. As we know from the past, I’m not the most patient fellow when trying out new things (remember my experiences with Woodland Scenics’ water products?). Although heavier, hydrocal or spackle or Cell-u-clay or any number of other materials would have been fully set up by now, and I’m kinda wishing I’d gone with a known quantity on this.

At this point, I’m hoping against hope that I won’t have to scrape all this stuff off the module and start over when I get home, as I frankly don’t have the time. I still have two other big projects for the show that I need to complete before departing for the show on Thursday morning — converting a Bachmann On30 Davenport to battery operation, and a new 1-hour presentation on Dead Rail.